Can BurberrySpace Help Reposition A Luxury Fashion Brand?

Burberry, intent on holding onto its recently upgraded cutting-edge image, will launch its own social networking site next month, the Financial Times reports. The site, Art Of The Trench, will feature user-submitted pictures of people sporting the brand’s famous trench coat. Burberry’s goal is to strengthen ties with existing customers while attracting new faces -- younger consumers they hope will be inclined to spend disposable income on luxury items.

The new site claims to deliver the ultimate “brand experience.” Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey commissioned The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman to snap people wearing its coats in major cities. Schuman's involvement hints at an understated, hip elegance.

The pre-launch site currently features a teaser video showing trench coat-clad Brits walking down a classic London street, set to indie music. The premium site is another step in Burberry's campaign to reclaim its brand as a classic label with a twist of cool, after years of knockoffs and thuggish associations had morphed it into "checks for chavs." 

But do the kids really want Facebook for trenchcoats? Burberry hopes so: their rock video displays profile elements (name, "favourites," comments) superimposed over the trench-clad hipsters. If the brand’s Facebook page -- currently boasting over 666,000 fans -- is any indication, their updated, traditional-meets-hip brand may turn out to be a good social networker.